The rise of the masseria, the Italian cottagecore

Puglia’s ‘masserie’ is having quite a moment, finds Anastasia Miari

The whitewashed backdrop of Masseria Moroseta (Anastasia Miari)

I grew up in Milano and now I think it’s just like a huge prison,” Chiara Esther Benedetta Tomasino says. Considering the weeks of quarantine people in the Lombardia region are now facing, and went through earlier this year, her observation is not far off.

We’re on the roof of Masseria Potenti, a sprawling farmhouse dating back to the 15th century owned by her parents and managed by Chiara and her mother, Maria Grazia. It’s in Puglia, the heel of Italy, dropped into hundreds of acres of olive groves, and a lifetime away from the concrete and cement of Italy’s financial capital.

The family has been based at this restored, centuries-old farm complex – now one of Italy’s most well-known hospitality projects – since the nation’s first lockdown in March. Although the “surprisingly busy” summer season is now over, the plan is for them to stay.

“It’s definitely safer here in the countryside. And look at where we are,” Chiara says, gesturing at the expansive courtyard of the white-washed masseria, dotted with wild cacti and giant agave that reach up into an infinite blue.

Typical of the traditionally agricultural region, the masserie were once farm complexes, usually built around a huge central courtyard, that thrived between the 16th and 19th century, churning out olive oil, fruit and vegetables. Over the past decade, these crumbling structures have been given a new lease of life as working guesthouses and luxury “hotel” concepts with a rustic feel.

Not wholly attributed to Covid-19 but perhaps vindicated by it, young Italians like Chiara are once again seeing the value of country living, moving to the countryside from cities to run the masserie – or else, to stay in them.

What originally began as a summer house project for the family 15 years ago has gradually turned into a successful hospitality business. “We first wanted a masseria for when we would escape Milano in the summers to come to Puglia,” Chiara tells me, “but then all our friends from Milano began wanting to stay here and word got out.”

After giving up a career in fashion in Milan, she now organises 50 weddings a year at Masseria Potenti.

A turquoise swimming pool and bedrooms with four poster beds dressed in vintage linens have taken the place of farm animals at Masseria Potenti. Now, brands like Peroni use it as a location for their advertising campaigns while Instagram influencers borrow its whitewashed, prickly pear-studded backdrop for their photos.

The draw is the feel for the real Italy. The masseria offers guests a chance to live like those deep in Italy’s remote countryside, with the seasonal produce served at lunch harvested on-site and a convivial atmosphere equivalent to the hug of an Italian mamma. And it's a rapidly growing trend.

Built as a “modern” masseria with the very purpose of becoming a hospitality concept, Masseria Moroseta – just outside the town of Ostuni – takes on the architectural feel of an old Puglian farmhouse, with impeccable Italian design detailing. In the communal living area, travel, fashion and design books line shelves of repurposed wood and an expansive glass window frames a swimming pool set into an olive grove. Old meets new here, with a focus on bringing people together.  

“Our guests become our friends,” says chef and part-owner Giorgia Goggi. “It’s super beautiful because people really feel the relaxed atmosphere and after a couple of hours, guests that didn’t know each other are coming to dinner together.”

She says living and working at a masseria has made her appreciate the simplest things in life. “I was born in Milano, in concrete and pollution, so when I moved here, I was super impressed by the light, by nature and by the produce.”

Serving a risotto so rich in flavour it could bring even the stiffest upper lip to a quiver, Giorgia exemplifies the very best of the produce grown on site. The risotto pomodoro features tomatoes cooked in three ways; roasted, then simmered into sugo and finally, dried and delicately dusted atop this satisfyingly sweet dish.

Though this masseria never worked as a farmhouse in the traditional sense, the principles of producing on-site have been adapted by its Milanese founders. “Being from the city, we appreciate the richness of the land and want to melt our modern aesthetic viewpoint with the basic things the landscape has to give us here,” says Giorgia.

On my masseria crawl, from La Fiermontina (in the heart of Lecce) and onto Masseria Potenti, Moroseta and Masseria Le Mandorle in the deep south of Ugento, I notice what unites them all is a desire to showcase Puglia, its landscape and its produce. At La Fiermontina and Masseria Potenti, olive oil is still produced from the olive trees on site. At Masseria Le Mandorle, the focus is placed on culinary traditions with guests being offered cooking classes. Above all, the owners are on site to welcome, live and dine alongside their guests.

“The appeal is to just be in homes and places that have had history – that have a soul and a story behind them,” says owner of Masseria Le Mandorle, Diana Bianchi, over breakfast. She attributes the recent “take off of tourism” in Puglia to the many masseria restorations that have taken place across the region.

Last year, tourism in Puglia reached record numbers and even this year, guests have continued to flow through the masserie. At Masseria Potenti, Italian guests escaping cities after lockdown poured in well into October. 

While I’m there, building work is taking place behind the masseria, expanding on the original structure, which can currently host 60 guests, with self-contained villas. All the weddings cancelled this summer have been rescheduled to 2021, indicating no end to the steady stream of tourists Puglia has seen in recent years.

Well aware that lockdown is hot on my heels, I daydream about the possibility of being trapped here. Chiara seems to have read my thoughts. “If I were you I wouldn’t go to Milan. I don’t know if I can ever live full time in a city again.”